Dr. MitchT. Farmer
Argonne National Laboratory

Abstract

The Reactor Safety Technologies (RST) pathway within the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program is providing scientific and technical insights, data, analyses, and methods that are intended to support industry efforts to enhance nuclear reactor safety in beyond design basis events.   RST activities evolved from an initial coordinated global effort to assist in the analysis of the Fukushima accident progression and accident response into the following technical areas:

1. Severe Accident Analyses: Experiments and analyses using existing computer models and their ability to provide information and insights into severe accident progression that aid in the development of plant-specific Severe Accident Management Guidance (SAMGs).
2. Accident Tolerant Components: Experiments and analyses addressing hardware-related issues with the potential to prevent core degradation or mitigate the effects of beyond-design basis events.
3. Passive Plant Cooling Concepts: Analyses with existing computer codes to evaluate the synergistic effects of Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF), extended operation of emergency core cooling equipment, and novel containment heat sink approaches on extending plant coping time during a severe accident.

Prior to initiating this work, a group of US experts in LWR safety and plant operations was convened by DOE to complete a technology gap analysis.  Results from these activities were used as the basis for refining DOE-NE’s severe accident Research and Development (R&D) plan that resulted in the current focus in the above three areas.  This presentation provides a high-level review of the current R&D that is being conducted in these areas.   Particular focus will be given to large scale reactor material core debris coolability experiments that are being conducted to support the severe accident analysis task described above.

Biography

Mitchell Farmer received his Bachelors degree in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University in 1983, his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1985, and his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1988.  He is currently a Senior Nuclear Engineer and Program Manager in the Nuclear Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory.  He has over twenty five years of experience in various R&D areas related to reactor development, design, and safety.  A principal career focus area has been light water reactor (LWR) severe accident analysis and experiments.  More recently he has also been involved in the analysis, design, and conduct of experiments related to operations and safety of Generation IV reactor concepts including sodium fast reactors, as well as high-temperature gas cooled reactors.  He has over 200 publications in the above mentioned technical areas.  Dr. Farmer also serves as the Technical Area Lead for the Reactor Safety Technologies Pathway (RST) within the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program at DOE.